Season two had more ups and downs than a walk through the terrain of Craphole Island. The season started off with a bang – literally – and the momentum lasted until the first dreadfully long month-long hiatus, one of, oh, five that plagued the show throughout the season.

Of the most grievous errors this once beautiful show committed, the worst in the second season was the drawn-out storylines that ended up going nowhere. What was the point of faux-Henry Gale? Ana-Lucia, who ended up dead by the end of the season? That damned hatch? There’s a difference between ambiguity for plot’s sake and ambiguity because the writers don’t know where to take the show. And, unfortunately, it appears the case for the second season of “Lost” is the latter, if official interviews with the “Lost” creators discussed at the www.televisionwithoutpity.com forums is any indication

Here are the other grievances I have with season two, ranked in order of spitefulness:

Destroying the Kate character (or what was left of her). After giving the character compelling storylines and characterization in season one (well, compelling-ish, still not sure what to make of that toy airplane storyline), Kate became a useless walking stereotype of badly written female characters. Plus, only one flashback episode this season compared to her three last season, writers? Shame. It’s called continuity. Look it up.

Sawyer, Kate, Jack, Ana-Lucia, oh my! The love-rectangle of lameness, in other words. What was the point? Why waste so much screen-time having stare-downs between Sawyer and Jack?

Episode 19, “S.O.S.” Also known as the episode that ruined the Rose and Bernard characters with a sappy, tired storyline about cancer and true love and blah blah blah. Not only a waste of time, but positioned near the end of the season the way it was, it ruined the (non-existent) momentum that may (or may not) have been there in the season by that time. Maybe.

Faux-Henry Gale. Many fans enjoyed the performance by Michael Emerson, who played the other pretended to be a man named Henry Gale in the second half of season two. Despite any artistic credit the character brought to the show, all I can think of his inclusion in the second season is that he was a waste of time, badly written and the creation of more filler storylines for characters than those now-silly Virgin Mary statuettes. Whose main storyline in season two relied on this character? Sayid’s, Jack’s (in the second half of the season), Locke’s (for at least six episodes), Danielle’s (who isn’t a main character, but I’m angry and trying to make a point, so leave me alone) and Ana-Lucia’s for the second half of the season (that she was alive for, anyway).

And finally, killing off Libby and Ana-Lucia for no. apparent. reason. Sure, the show explained this by saying Michael needed to kill someone to convince the Lostaways needed to help him rescue Walt. But, c’mon, “Lost” fans are much, much smarter than this. For a show that includes online content and encourages Internet “Lost” communities, this was handled very poorly. We all know that at least for one of the characters, the reason for their execution rests off Craphole Island. Search “Michelle Rodriguez” or “Cynthia Watros” in Yahoo! Search to find out for yourself. Yeah-huh.

I may sound overly hurtful and critical of season two of “Lost,” but as a critic of popular culture and a fan of genre television, I feel it’s my duty to let the truth be known. That, and this is one-way communication, baybee. Ain’t nothin’ you can do about it. What truth would that be? That “Alias” had a significantly better season this year, Grey’s Anatomy rocks my socks, and that “Battlestar Galactica” succeeds where “Lost” fails. But this doesn’t mean I’m going to stop watching “Lost,” because as I mentioned in the introduction, season two had a few good episodes along with the bad ones.

FINAL WORD ON SEASON 2

Best episode: “Orientation,” episode three. In the episode where Desmond leaves, Jack has a breakdown and Hurley gets a new storyline, the plot moves at a blistering place, time in deliciously non-linear, and best of all, actors Matthew Fox (Jack) and Terry O’Quinn (Locke) give their best performances in the show, the latter in one of the most effective flashback sequences the show has ever done.

Runner-ups: “Abandoned,” episode six, and “The Long Con,” episode 13. In “Abandoned,” Shannon proves she’s awesome by hallucinating astral-projected Walts, but then dies, proving that sometimes the best storylines never happen the way you would expect them to. In “The Long Con,” one of the only rewatchable episodes in the second half of season two, we are treated to a new kind of flashback (a fun one) that proves there might be life left in the plot device after all.

Best character: Sun Kwon, played by Yunjin Kim. Sun is season two’s best character because not only did she make a wacky-fun episode in the middle of all the hatch drama work, she appeared on-screen only when she needed to, unlike most of the other characters this season *cough* Charlie *cough*. Oh, and the Korean sounds great.

Runner-up: John Locke, played by Terry O’Quinn. The most complex, interestingly written and best acted character on the show. Terry O’Quinn deserves and Emmy.

Overall season rating: 2 ½ out of 5 soon-to-be-released Season 2 DVDs The hatch was thrilling. Then it wasn’t. Michael had screen-time. Then he didn’t. Michelle Rodriguez rocked in “The Other 48 Days.” Then her character got killed off for no good reason. In a season with contradiction, the good episodes stick out as some of the best television made this past year, but with writing this inconsistent and weak, “Lost” is in need of resuscitation, and fast. I’ll see you again in September, “Lost.” Oh, and in the meantime, could you kill off Charlie for me, bring Libby back to life and add Ms. Klugh to the regular characters list, please? Thanks.

Comments

Why so harsh? Written by Guest on 2006-10-05 21:25:48 Compare this show to 90% of the crap out there and I think you'd rate it much higher. You just seem to have way too high expectations here. I love Lost!

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